Why Intel and Netscape bought into Linux

October 1, 1998
Web posted at: 1:30 PM EDT

by David Needle

(IDG) -- SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA -- Who's really serious about
Linux? On Tuesday, Intel and Netscape put their
money where their mouth is by disclosing minority
investments in Red Hat Software, the leading
commercial supplier of the open-source operating
system. Later in the day they explained their reasoning
during a panel at the ISPCON conference here.

With Intel's recent announcement of support for
Microsoft rival Real Networks, there has been much
speculation that the Red Hat investment represents a
further rift between Intel and Microsoft. But Intel vice
president Sean Maloney downplayed those rumors.
"We've always sought to get the most software on the
Intel platform," he said. "Our investment in Linux
doesn't affect our support and development efforts for
NT in any way."

Versions of Linux, which runs on Intel PCs and servers
and is considered more stable than Windows, are
freely available via the Internet. Unlike Windows, the
underlying source code to Linux is freely available to
developers to license so they can customize the
software. Companies like Red Hat package retail
versions of Linux that they charge about $50 for, which
include the software on CD-ROM, plus documentation
and support.

Red Hat President Robert Young said the
Intel/Netscape investment wasn't needed to support the
company's retail effort but to gain credibility with
corporate customers. "The key thing for growth of Linux
in the commercial space is working with winners like
Netscape," said Young. "If we can prove ourselves with
Netscape, other application vendors who haven't ported
their software to Linux yet will join in."

Linux has been gaining rapid support on the application
side. Since July, the five leading providers of database
software -- Oracle, Informix, Computer Associates,
Sybase and IBM -- have all announced plans to support
Red Hat's Linux OS. Corel also plans to port its Corel
Office suite to Linux.

Linus Torvalds, the cheery, unassuming creator of
Linux, said after the panel that Intel's attitude toward
Linux had changed noticeably in the past three
months. "I think Intel has been hearing from their big
customers and inside their own company, that they
want to see support from Intel for Linux," said Torvalds.
He noted there is a Linux users group at the giant chip
company.

Growing faster than NT server?

Netscape moved slowly at first in its public statements
of support for Linux because it didn't want to alarm
corporate customers, according to John Paul, general
manager of server products at Netscape. "But I'm no
longer nervous about talking to enterprise customers
about Linux and that is a big change," said Paul. "We
consider Linux a tier-one platform that will be available
for all our server products and we have made a major
commitment to support it."

Paul applauded the spread of Intel servers running
Windows NT. "But you need a good something else,
and Linux is a good something else," said Paul. "I
predict Linux will grow even faster than NT. We will
have real competition at the operating system level and
that is good for everyone."

Torvalds said he is not as surprised at the success of
the Unix-based operating system as he was years ago
when the number of users multiplied rapidly. He
developed the software while a college student in
Helsinki in 1991. "Everyone thinks Linux is an overnight
phenomena, but I've been seeing it for seven years,"
said Torvalds.

He doesn't expect Microsoft to develop applications for
Linux even though the installed base of Linux users is
about the same as for the Macintosh where Microsoft
is very successful. And what if Bill Gates called and
said he wanted to develop for Linux? Said Torvalds: "If
Microsoft ever does applications for Linux it means I've
won."